Jump to content
Hamer Fan Club Message Center

What's Spinnin' ..


Recommended Posts

I'm playing a 1982 release of a Time/Life 3-LP box set of Segovia recordings that span 1927-1971. I picked it up at a Goodwill for $1.99. I was really excited by the find; the vinyl surfaces of all three LPs gleamed (a good sign) and had no signs of wear or surface scratches. However, when I got it home to play, to my dismay it sounded unbearably noisy. Disappointed, I shelved the box set. Then, a couple years ago I bought a mono cartridge to get the best performance out of the 2014 Parlophone mono release of the mono Beatles albums (from 1963's Please, Please Me through the White album, plus a 3-LP set of mono singles). It was quite a revelation. I decided to see how this cartridge would sound with some true vintage mono albums. I put on a couple of 1969 true mono albums, and to my surprise all the surface noise was gone.

I checked my Segovia box set and discovered that half the sides (1, 2, and 4) were recorded and cut in mono. Today I finally got around to playing them with my mono cartridge, and so far the mono sides sound brand frickin' NEW. The 1948-1956 sides sound like well-made modern recordings. Only the ones from the 1920s sound a bit noisy, and that's because there were no tape recorders back then (magnetic tape was invented during WWII), meaning that the surface noise was in the source--the original 1928 lacquers.

But the best thing of all is this is like a private recital by the king daddy of classical guitar, with performances reaching back 89 years and reaching forward to the year I graduated from high school. Segovia is the father of modern classical guitar. There was little standard repertoire when he got started. He did transcriptions of violin, cello, and harpsichord sonatas and created a large body of work that pretty much any serious classical guitarist has to master. I had not had any Segovia recordings before; I had plenty by Christopher Parkening, John WIlliams, Julian Bream, Narciso Yepes, various members of the Romero family, and several others. Now, with this box set, I can easily hear where many of the recent masters of classical  got got their sense of tone, harmony, dynamics, tempo, and subtleties of expression, even if they dialed back some of Segovia's lush and romantic approach, but I don't consider that a bad thing.

s-l1600.jpg

 

Edited by JohnnyB
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Little mellow tonight so going with one of favorite mellow albums Peter Green.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I left ohio in 1970, my family wanted me to go to college , we couldn’t afford it so in California college was free just books so we sold or house and left ohio for Chino California were the Priwon were Timothy Leary and the mason Girls were held.. We lived across the street  from the prison in a mobile home next to corn fields. We left in 1972 when my dad was killed in a motorcycle accident, we came back to ohio and the first concert I went to th fist week I was back was Rory Gallagher opening for Robin Trower at the old Clevland Agora, liked then both but wow Rory was just some kind of freaking  blues punk, I saw  hm after that every year until he died. my favorite “punk” blues guy. Cranked this up tonight because I had the blues,

 dad, mom and Rory all gone but not fror gotten.  RIP. But kick ass.

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...